Wildme’s Wildbook and Whaleshark.org are both open source computer vision based conservation projects, that have been compared to a facebook for wildlife. Jason kicks us off with the interesting story of how wildbook came to be, and the eventual expansion of the project from a focus on whale sharks to include Giant Manta Rays, Humpback Whales, Zebras and Giraffes. Jason and I explore the evolution of these projects’ use of computer vision and deep learning, the unique characteristics of the models they’re building, and how they’re ultimately enabling a new kind of citizen science. Finally, we take a look at a cool new “intelligent agent” project that Jason is working on, which mines YouTube for wildlife sightings and automatically engages with the relevant individuals and scientists on Wildbook’s behalf.

Sign up for our Newsletter!

Be sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter. We recently shared a write up detailing the ML/AI Job Board we’re working on, and got a ton of encouragement and interest. To make sure you don’t miss anything, head over to twimlai.com/newsletter to sign up.

Vote for us!!

We’ve got some great news to share and also favor to ask! We’re in the running for this year’s People’s Choice podcast awards, in both the People’s Choice and Technology categories and we’d really appreciate your support! Head over to our nomination page to find out how to vote for us!!! Thanks in advance!